> This is where you guys come in. Give me whatever suggestions you can think of for what I should put into this game. Let me know what you think. What do YOU want to be able to do in this?

Allow me to say, first of all: Geez, Sam, when do you ever get any sleep? You're married, have a full-time job, watch and review several movies a week, develop new content for the humor sections of RinkWorks, do various other maintenance-related tasks for the site, AND develop full-blown new computer games? I mean, I know that the lovely and talented Darleen Stoddard handles the EquiWorks chores :-), but that still leaves an awful lot for you. Maybe a day in New Hampshire is longer than twenty-four hours or something, in the opposite way that a day here in Cape Ann, Mass. seems to be over a few minutes after I change out of my work-clothes. Oh, well.

Anyway, I did have a reason for posting, other than obliquely paying homage to the captain of all us Rinky-dinks. I've got two general, not specific, suggestions for the new online RPG. First, consider the feasibility of doing something similar to AGL with this game: writing an engine that can handle highly customizable levels and worlds, to leave open the possibility of reader-submitted plug-in dungeons in the future.

Second--and this goes for those making suggestions as well as for Sam--do NOT suggest or implement any spell in the game that isn't actually EFFECTIVE. Back in the glory days of the Commodore 64 (*wistful sigh*), I played through Bard's Tale, the TSR Gold Box series (Pool of Radiance et al.), and other similar computer RPGs. A given for each and every one of them was that within thirty minutes of playing the game, I had settled on the list of spells that my mages would use to the exclusion of all others. I NEVER wasted time memorizing "Detect Invisibility", or even "Invisibility 10' Radius" or other such dinky tricks. It was "Fireball" and "Lightning Bolt" all the way, baby, because that was the only thing that really got you through those hordes of enemies. Same goes for the Bard's Tale: mostly offensive, a few defensive, and absolutely no "utility" spells were the entire repertoire of my wizards.

A computer "RPG" seldom includes much of the "RP" element, and instead is mostly a fighting-oriented game with a fantasy RPG setting. Hence, spells are only really worthwhile if they inflict massive amounts of damage on that mob of Rock Golems coming your party's way. To successfully implement a "utility" (i.e., non-offensive and non-defensive) spell is going to take a lot of creativity and planning on your part. And those of us making suggestions for potential spells should be careful to suggest things that work well within the parameters of the computerized dungeon crawl genre.

Iss "Anyone remember 'NUKE' from Bard's Tale III?" achar